The Haunted: Part 2
by E.M.R. Harrison
Summary: Part 2 to the Haunted.


The Haunted: Part 2

I left the motel as soon as I could, dropping the keys in the slot by the office. The sun had not even risen yet so the office was still closed. I made my way to the side of the motel where there were no windows and took off to the sky. My all black attire helped me to blend in with the early morning sky. I had no destination in mind, just to get as far away from that hotel in California as I could. I flew to the east trying to clear my mind. I could still see that face implanted into my head. I could hear the voice of Nathan Petrelli haunting me as I flew through the sky.

I saw the bright lights of Los Vegas and decided to land there for a something to eat. I found an empty rooftop to alight upon and climbed down the fire escape on the side of the building. The bright lights of the strip were a drastic contrast to the early morning light with the sun slowly rising from the east. I wondered the streets until I found a promising looking restaurant and entered.

I took a seat in a corner booth looking around at the occupants of the room. There were a few early risers but not many, which I was thankful for. A waitress came up to my table holding her little pad in her hand. She smiled down at me and I politely returned the smile.

"Would you like a menu sir? And can I get you something to drink?" she asked me kindly.

I smiled up at her with a tilt of my head. "Coffee." I answered. "What would you recommend?" I asked.

"Well, we have our special going on, Waffles, scrambled eggs and sausage." she said knowingly.

"That will be fine." I said placidly.

The waitress left me to my own thoughts and I stirred uncomfortably in my seat with that lurking feeling that I was being watched. I risked a glance around the vicinity and did not find anything to support the fact.

As I looked around the room I kept hearing a voice in the back of my head. It was repeating the same thing over and over again. One word, a name, 'Peter'. It was as if something was trying to tell me to contact him.

"_Peter doesn't want anything to do with me." _I thought to myself. _"And why would I tell him that I had a dream that his dead brother, whom I killed, had come back to avenge his death. It would only put the icing on the cake." _

The waitress brought me my meal and I thanked her with a kind smile before looking down at my plate. Seeing the waffles in front of me brought me back to another time in my past. A time that I attempted to kill a young waitress named Charlie Andrews, but was thwarted by her love struck puppy dog Hiro Nakamura. He told me I would die alone. I would welcome that now, rather then to live eternally in solace.

I shook the thoughts from my head as if I were merely swatting away a pesky fly and began to eat my waffles. The syrup was a tad too sweet for me, and I began to wish I were back at the Burnt Toast Dinner. Their waffles were far better. I shook my head with a slight smirk. Funny how we miss the small things in life.

I felt eyes upon me and looked up to see a group of young men and woman looking over their shoulders in my direction. When they noticed me looking back at them they turned away quickly. Did they recognize me? I didn't know, nor did I care. I shook my head once more and looked back down at my food as I poked at it.

I started suddenly as the voice in the back of my head rose to a deafening roar, now shouting the name Peter so clearly I could have sworn I could have actually heard it with my ears. I looked around to see if anyone else had heard it too and saw that there was a man at the end of the diner's bar looking in my direction.

I raised a brow inquiringly at the stranger then he stood up and headed over to my table. He wore a black hat that shadowed any facial features that would allow me to identify him. He slid casually into the seat in front of me before slowly removing his baseball cap. My lips parted in surprise as the man across from me forced a smile to his face.

"Fancy seeing you here Sylar." he said quietly.

"Peter. How did you find me?" I asked intrigued at his sudden appearance.

Peter shrugged before checking his surroundings. He leaned forward and spoke once more in barely a whisper. "I had a strange dream last night. About Nathan. He told me I'd find you here." he said.

As he was speaking I had been taking a sip of my coffee when his words hit me. I choked on the warm drink in my surprise at the coincidental occurrences that had brought him here. Peter looked at me with mild surprise that was quickly replaced by concern.

"Are you all right S..Gabriel?" he said to me.

I nodded as I tried to fight back the tears that were forming from the hot liquid that had singed my throat. I reached for the glass of ice water that was sitting in front of me and drank some of that down.

"I had a dream about Nathan last night too." I finally was able to spit out.

Peter's brows furrowed in confusion. "Did he tell you to find me here?" he asked me with a tilt of his head.

I shook my own and reflexively reached up to my throat. "No. He didn't do too much talking." I added with a curt laugh.

Peter looked utterly confused by this comment. I gave him a moment to ponder it as I took another drink of my coffee. As I set the warm mug down on the table Peter nodded as if he finally understood.

"Did he look, different, to you?" Peter asked pausing in the middle of his sentence as though he were trying to find the right word to describe his brother's appearance.

I lifted a brow and offered a half smile. "If looking like an animated corpse is different, then yes." I said placidly.

Peter opened his mouth as though he were about to say something but pause before continuing. "He looked like that to me to. Do you think that maybe he's still alive?" Peter asked me looking hopeful.

"_Oh, god here we go again." _I thought. I shook my head. "He's dead Peter. Let him rest in peace." I said before taking another swig of joe.

Peter sat back in his seat his hands pressed together in front of him on the table as he peered out the window. The sun was starting to rise higher into the Nevada sky and I watched Peter in interest as he seemed to come to grips with what I had said.

He looked at me over his hands as I put my attention towards my food. "What do you think it means then? Him visiting us both in our dreams, then me finding you exactly where you were." Peter pressed.

I shook my head and set my fork down in frustration. I hadn't even wanted to tell Peter of my dream in the first place. All I wanted to do was forget about it and go about my business. Peter and his wild dreams apparently had other ideas.

"I don't know Peter. And I couldn't begin to even attempt to try to explain it." I answered with an agitated voice.

Peter sighed in what sounded like frustration. "Maybe it's his spirit or something." he guessed aloud.

"Telling us what? That he wants me dead and for you to do it?" I scoffed.

Peter actually laughed at the comment which made me look up at him with a raised brow. "What's so funny?" I asked him.

"He didn't tell me to kill you. In fact it was quite the opposite. He seemed to think there was something you needed to know, but he wouldn't tell me what." he tried to explain.

I was even more confused now, which most likely showed on my face as I looked at Peter trying to work out what he meant. "Something I need to know?" I repeated not knowing what else to say.

Peter nodded confirming what I'd heard. "What's there for me to know." I asked rhetorically before looking back down to my plate. I suddenly wasn't hungry anymore but I continued to prod at my food to have something to do with my hands.

Peter sighed and pulled his hands off the table sliding them into his lap. I looked up my nose at him as he picked at his fingers under the table. "I don't know. But I have a feeling he'll be back." Peter said. "You have a place to stay tonight?" he added.

I shrugged. "I usually just crash at the cheapest motel in the vicinity." I said as I pushed my plate away, appetite abated now.

I clasped my hands together in front of me and leaned over the table. "I don't want to know what he has to tell me. I doubt it would change anything anyway." I said curtly to Peter as he looked up at me.

Peter raised a brow at me as he eyed me from across the table. "He said it was important that you knew of it." he said.

"Then why didn't he just tell me last night instead of trying to kill me!" I said, my anger was rising up inside of me. I slammed my fist down on the table loudly causing the other dinners to look over at us.

"I don't know." Peter whispered looking around at the other patrons.

I sighed and sat back in my seat throwing dirty looks in the direction of the onlookers. They turned away quickly, suddenly intimidated by my glare. I looked back at Peter with a satisfying look upon my face.

"I'm done here Peter." I said standing up and throwing a small tip on the table.

I walked over to pay my check and headed out of the dinner back into the sunlit streets. As I started to walk down the sidewalk a part of me hoped that I had left Peter behind, but the sound of heavy footsteps proved that I had hoped in vain.

"Stop following me Peter." I said to the man behind me.

Peter ran up beside me and began walking at the same pace that I was. I stopped and looked over at him with a glare. "I told you to stop following me." I growled.

"I'm not. I'm just walking beside you." he said with a half smile.

Part of me wanted to just throw him across the street with a flick of my finger but another part of me said that there were too many witnesses. I rolled my eyes and continued to walk quickening my pace.

"You don't want to talk about it?" Peter asked from beside me.

"NO, I want to be left alone." I growled.

Peter shook his head and laughed. "You're always alone Gabriel." He reminded me.

I ignored this comment and continued walking hoping to shake off the persistent man beside me. Maybe if I turned down a dark alley I can just take off and fly to a new location. Then a thought hit me. How the hell did Peter get here so fast unless he was already in Vegas.

"Peter." I said stopping in my tracks.

"Yeah." he responded.

I looked at him with a raised brow. "How did you get here?" I inquired.

"I flew." he said casually.

"Flew? As in on a plane?" I suggested.

Peter laughed and shook his head. "No, I would have missed you. As in I took off from the ground and flew here. Borrowed the power from another flier in California. Friend of Claire's." he said.

I nodded in understanding. "I see. So you're still limited to the one ability?" I asked.

Peter nodded. "Yeah why?"

I shrugged, I didn't think I could force him to take one of my powers, he seemed to have pretty good control over that now. So I knew flying away would not solve anything. "Ok, what do you want Peter?" I asked glaring at him.

"Just, come stay at my apartment tonight, just to see if Nathan…" he started but I didn't want to hear the rest of it.

I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him close to me. "Nathan is dead, Peter. Get used to it." I hissed before releasing the man.

Peter grabbed my own collar and thrust me violently into the brick wall behind us. My head smacked against the solid object and I saw stars for a brief moment before my regenerative powers kicked in.

"Will you just shut up and listen to me!" Peter screamed in desperation. "I wasn't going to say that Nathan is alive, but if he is somehow trying to communicate with us from beyond the grave, don't you think for just one moment, that maybe it might be important." he insisted lowering his voice as his words trailed.

I shrugged my shoulders as best I could while being pinned to the building. "I guess that is a possibility." I said to satisfy him so that he would let me go.

His hands opened and my collar fell to it's normal position before I shrugged myself off of the wall. I popped my neck and looked down my nose at Peter with a raised brow. "Fine, I'll come by tonight but if nothing happens, I'm leaving." I said finally.

"Fine by me." Peter said turning away. "I just don't like seeing my brother like that and the sooner he gets his message to you, the sooner I'll stop seeing him."

I shrugged as Peter began heading towards an abandoned alley. I shook my head before moving to follow him knowing what he was going to do. I made my way into the alley behind Peter just as he was taking off in a flash into the air. I took a deep breath and flew off after him, hoping that I wasn't making a huge mistake that would lead to my demise at the hands of corpse Nathan.

To Be Continued….


End file.
